File:St Francis Xaviers Church, Goa.JPG

English: When Francis died in the island of Sancian on 3rd December, 1552, his Chinese friend Antonio de Santa Fe, buried him there in a wooden coffin, as they used to do in China. Two layers of quicklime where added in order to accelerate the process of corruption which would facilitate the transference of bones. Two and half months later, the ship Santa Cruz carried away the coffin to Malacca where many Christians and non-Christians had gathered to receive the body of their dead Francis. Here the body was again buried in the Church without the coffin, but the face was covered according to the customary practice in Malacca. In December 1553, the body was unearthed and placed in a coffin and Bro. Manoel de Tavora took it to Goa, stopping at Cochin and Batcal on the way. On 15th March 1554, the body was received solemnly in Goa by the Archbishop, the Vice-Roy, the clergy, the nobility and the people according to the fashion of the time. The funeral took place in the College of St. Paul. Such was the rush of people that only after three days it was possible to keep the body in a sarcophagus in the Church of the College of St. Paul.